Malaysia's first astronaut along with two colleagues Friday reached the International Space Station (ISS) after two days of flight, news reports said, according to DPA. The Soyuz-FG rocket docked at 1450 GMT carrying 35-year-old Malaysian physician Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Peggy Whitson. The Russian rocket blasted off from Kazakhstan on Wednesday, cutting a blinding orange trail across the clouds to the ISS. The rocket was adorned with the Malaysian flag in honour of the historic event. Whitson and Malenchenko are to work in orbit for six months, but Shukor will return to Earth on October 21 together with two Russian crew currently working in orbit, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.
